


Everybody Cries Sometimes

by say_lene



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Liam is such a cutie, Toothache sweet, Vows, Weddings, happy crying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 19:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10542702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/say_lene/pseuds/say_lene
Summary: As requested by re-phyiiaa on tumblr:Liam and Sara get married - and Liam is totally a crier.(Actually there's a lot of crying everywhere but OF COURSE THERE IS.)





	

It's not _real_ sunlight. There's no sun in Meridian - just that gorgeous, sourceless glow. It's warming Liam's face right now. Come to think of it, maybe it's a little _too_ warm. He's starting to sweat.

He hopes it's not too noticeable. That's what the dress jacket is for, right? Can't just be for looks. Besides, _everyone_ sweats on their wedding day. That's a thing. That's definitely a thing.

Still, maybe they should have had the ceremony indoors. Climate control is also a thing, and it's a _good_ thing. Maybe some biolum lights hanging from the atrium ceiling; some flowers from the mountainside scattered on the floor. That would've looked nice. Very nice.

Damn. Liam shuffles his feet and pulls at his collar. It's _really_ hot out here. He's starting to second guess all his plans, too. The jacket's definitely not working out - maybe it's hiding the sweat, but it also feels a lot like walking around in a slim-fit oven. What if the guests are melting, too? What if it ruins the whole day?

The guest list started small, but everybody knows the Pathfinder. There's got to be a hundred people squeezed into this place - _after_ three rounds of culling. The rows of seats look like they go on forever, even if Liam knows the aisle's not that long.

He glances around - maybe frantically. He's got his back to the granite pillar that Sara just had to have, and there's a tiny little waterfall splashing down around it. A shallow pool of water swirls around its base, the overflow escaping through some tunnel in the rock. He's worked out why she wanted the garden. Granite for her dad; fresh water for her mum.

Liam wants it to be perfect for her. It _has_ to be perfect.

"Kosta," Vetra hisses from the front row. She has to hiss at him again before Liam realizes it's her. She looks weird without her scarf.

"What?" He sounds like he's about to bite her head off - or maybe like _his_ head is about to explode.

"Stop fidgeting," Vetra snaps. Beside her, Sid hides a turian-smile behind her hand. "You'll ruin your suit."

On Liam's left, Jaal chuckles. Maybe the big guy thinks he's being quiet. "I think the… what is he? Oh yes, the _groom_. I think the groom is nervous, Vetra."

"Shut up," Liam grumbles. "I'm not nervous."

"Angara do not have weddings," Jaal continues, just as if he didn't hear Liam at all. "But when two angara wish to form a household of their own, we have a ceremony that is known as the _Tavanje_. Nervousness is very common."

Scott peers over Jaal's shoulder. His hair's slicked back and his tie's done tight, but he fixes Liam with a shit-eating grin. "Oooh. Has someone got cold feet?"

"There's nothing cold about _anything_ right now!"

Jaal and Scott both laugh - _again_. Liam can still feel his temperature rising. Is his face turning red? Is there steam coming out of his ears?

Abruptly, Peebee appears from somewhere behind Vetra. She perches herself on the back of Sid's chair, taking a moment to briefly examine her fingernails. "Relax, Liam. You've come this far. All you have to do now is let it ride."

" _Ryde_ ," Sid guffaws - and everyone groans.

Jaal pats Liam on the shoulder. Scott claps him on the back. Liam just tries to keep his head from exploding.

"Shhhhh." That was Cora, but Liam can't see her. A hush comes over the crowd. "Sit _down_ , Peebee!"

Sid scoots sideways so Peebee can share her chair, but Liam hardly notices. The guests are all looking over their shoulders. They're craning their necks to see through the trees at the end of the garden. The branches are packed close, like the bottles at the last London bar he ever saw, so Liam can't make out much - but he can see a krogan in there somewhere, all puffed up with pride in place of his armour. There's something glinting white in the shadows, too, almost hidden behind Drack. Kind of like blue-white luminescence. Kind of like distant stars.

The aisle suddenly seems two million light years long. Did Jaal remember the rings? Does Liam remember his vows? Is he sweating through his jacket? Are the guests melting after all?

Shit. He can't screw this up. Mum will never forgive him.

Liam glances helplessly at his best angara, but Jaal and Scott have both stepped back. Jaal's watching Liam curiously, like he's never seen someone panic before. Liam's panicked before, right? He's definitely panicked in front of Jaal.

Scott's not looking at him at all. His eyes are on the end of that standard-light eternity. They go wide for a second when the music starts, like he's shocked at Sara's choice - but he smiles, then. Sadly. Like she never could have chosen anything else.

"Mom's song," he whispers to Liam.

And Liam can't breathe.

She emerges from the shadows like silver into sunlight; like aurora meridiani against a sky that never ends. She's holding Drack's arm like she's supporting his weight, but she's beaming like she's on Cloud Nine.

Like she's walking some line between euphoria and bliss.

Like she's walking her way towards the end of all despair.

And Liam's crying like a baby - because she's walking towards _him_.

No point hiding the tears. Sara's getting misty-eyed too by the time she finally nears. Liam reaches for her hand before he even realizes what he's doing, but Drack swats him away.

"Handshake first, human. We're doing this right."

Liam nods frantically. A krogan handshake's enough to break unarmoured fingers, but Liam's already turned to jelly anyway. He laughs weakly when Drack finally lets him go; when Sara chuckles like wind chimes, and her warm fingers twine with his.

"Hi," she whispers.

Liam croaks something that _sounds_ like hello. The guests giggle and murmur - until Sara reaches out to brush away his tears. That's when they finally melt.

Drack creaks his way over to a waiting chair, but Liam's already forgotten him. Sara's leading the way to their towering granite pillar, and Liam's pulled in her wake like a comet trail, clutching her hand like he'll never let her go. Maybe he never will.

Liam knows she won't mind. _Always_ , she'll say.

He knows what always means, now.

Liam expects her to stop at the edge of the little pool, but she steps right into it, laughing happily as she sinks up to her ankles. Liam follows right after, almost blinded by his tears. Sara's crying too. There's water glistening at the corners of her eyes. There's water rushing over her little silver shoes, tugging at the hem of her dress.

There's no officiant, because the papers are already signed. The boring stuff's done. What's left is up to them.

Liam finally manages to speak. "You ready?" He sounds all stuffy, like he's spent too long out in the cold.

Sara nods. "Ladies first," she murmurs - then raises her voice.

"Liam Kosta," she says loudly. She squeezes his fingers, but Liam can still feel his hands shaking. "The moment I met you, I literally swept you off your feet."

The audience laughs, even if some of them sound a little confused. Liam, though, he _ugly-laughs_ , because it feels like his heart's trying to beat its way out of his chest. "True," he rasps.

"You swept me off my feet, too. I make a good show of it, but the truth is that I haven't touched the ground since."

"Awwww," somebody murmurs.

"Shut up!" whispers somebody else.

But it doesn't look like Sara even hears them; she's gazing at Liam with eyes like blue-shifted stars. She's speaking to him, and _only_ to him, and Liam's vision blurs with a fresh wave of tears.

"I crossed two and a half million light years, but I found my soulmate in a cryo-pod down the hall." She smiles at him, then, but it's a wobbly little smile, buckling under a galaxy of hope and joy and awe - and the way a heart hurts when it just can't love any harder. "I told myself that I wasn't going to cry - but now _everybody's crying_ and I just -"

She breaks off, laughing at herself, and Liam pulls her into a hug. The guests are all sighing and sniffling as well, and someone sobs quietly when Liam kisses Sara on the cheek.

"Love you," he whispers - so only she can hear.

She pulls herself together and pulls herself away, still smiling that wobbly little smile. "So," she continues, like she's prepping herself for yet another crazy leap, "I promise to go on loving you the way I do right now. I promise to be there when everything goes to hell, and when it all just seems too much. I promise to be there when things are good, too, and when you're tired of hearing about how much I adore you."

Liam's heart can't feel any fuller. "Won't ever get tired of that," he whispers.

Sara blinks away her tears. "Your turn."

"Sara Ryder," he begins. Liam's been worrying he'll forget his vows - but the words are right there, fighting with each other to be the first from his lips; dancing on his fingertips and pulsing with his heart. "You know me, so you know I'm not great at making speeches. My mouth runs away without my head sometimes, but I don't want to look back on this day and wish I'd sounded better at the altar."

She smiles at him. "You won't."

Liam pauses to drag the back of his hand across his eyes. He wants to be able to see her. He reaches out towards his best angara - and Jaal's already there, pressing a datapad into Liam's hand.

"So I've been writing things down," Liam says as Jaal returns to his place beside Scott. "Every time you make me smile - bam, it's on the datapad. Every time I wander off inside my head, thinking about us - down it goes."

He has to pause to clear his throat, because he's starting to tear up again - but Sara smiles at him tremulously, and that's what gives him the strength to continue. Now that the moment's here, he almost can't bring himself to look away from her - but he drops his eyes to the datapad. He raises his voice.

"I could go on like this forever…so here's what I wrote last week. Had breakfast with Sara today." The audience is totally quiet, and Liam's hands are shaking again. "We didn't say a word - the whole time - but she kissed me on the head when she sat down. She did it again when she left." He pauses to look at her. "I drew a love heart next to that."

Jaal's the first to laugh - and thank god for that. It starts other guests chuckling as well, and suddenly none of this is as hard as it was before. Sara's giggling softly, wiping tears out of her eyes.

"Football at Prodromos. Can't think about football anymore without feeling all gooey. Have to ask Sara if she'll teach me some tricks."

"No way!" someone yells. Definitely Gil. That makes Liam laugh too, and it's an effort to continue - but he keeps going, even when the guests giggle and cheer; even when they sigh and coo; even when Sara smiles so hard her cheeks might crack.

"Banged up my knee on Havarl today. Sara kissed it better. It was super cute."

"Sara's bought gifts for the team dinner tonight. She got something for everybody. My present was a little toy car."

"There's a meeting with the exec on the schedule. Sara said I don't have to go with. Love that woman."

Here, he pauses.

"Missing mum and dad a lot this week. After the wedding, we're going to fire the little car back at the Milky Way. Little bells on the bumper. Maybe some confetti. Sara's idea, but mum would love it."

He stops there, handing the datapad back to Jaal. Sara grabs Liam's hands and strokes the inside of his palms. She's silent, but her eyes say everything. They're big and bright and brimming; sparkling at the edges with what she doesn't have to voice.

"So, yeah." His voice is all croaky, but he's going for it anyway. "My mouth runs away without my head sometimes, but that isn't happening today. Vows are all about promises, right? I love you, Sara. That's my promise. Thick and thin. Young and old. Richer, poorer, sickness, health - from now on, it's always _us_. Always will be."

Liam's heart is full. He can see hers is, too.

He knows what always means, now.

"Always," he says again.

He beckons to Jaal one more time, and his friend almost leaps to his side. This time, he passes Liam a ring. He hands the other one to Sara. They're simple bands - shiny, but not gold. They're made of titanium, and Liam's a fan of the metaphor.

Sara speaks first. She pries apart his fingers, and the ring goes on easily. "I, Sara Ryder."

"I, Liam Kosta." He has to give her ring a twist before it slips over her knuckle, and Sara laughs helplessly.

"Take you, Liam."

"Take you, Sara."

She beams at him, and Liam can't help but grin back. The tears are all gone. There'll be more in future, because everybody cries sometimes. But Liam's not afraid of tears. Let 'em come.

She squeezes his hand before they say the final word, and Liam pulls her into his arms.

"Always."


End file.
